We are about bringing you real beer that will delight you. And to brew for you, the very best beer we can, we source the very best ingredients we can find.

Beer has four basic ingredients: water, malt (this is malted grain, either barley or wheat), hops and yeast. We also use a balancing agent to ensure the consistency of the ph levels in the water and finings to help clear the yeast from the beer and create a bright looking drink.

The water is the starting point into which we build all of the flavour and alcohol using the malt, hops and yeast. Our water (or liquor, to use brewing terms) is drawn from our local source and we monitor acidity levels to make sure it is consistent and provides the best possible flavour. A balancing agent ensures the level of acidity is right. This is used in very small quantities (less than half a pint to every 100 gallons) and means that we can guarantee the flavour of our beers, regardless of changes in the water supply.

Much of the grain used for our malt is grown in the fields of Lincolnshire which surround the brewery. It is taken in by our local maltings (Bairds Malt), and malt is created by germinating and then roasting the grain. We use a variety of malts including optic, chocolate, pilsner and crystal. All of them chosen for the flavour and character which they can give to our beer. Every new malt delivery is checked for the quality of its extract (how much starch / sugar it will provide) and we adjust our recipes accordingly to ensure we are brewing the beer just as it should be.

The hops give the beer bitterness, fresh flavours and aroma. We use a wide range of hops to create the fantastic flavours and aromas that you find in our real beer. We use traditional English hops from Kent/Herefordshire and Worcestershire but also more exotic varieties from as far afield as New Zealand. Each year we look for new varieties to try out, as we continuously work to develop the range of beers we produce. The hops available today offer really exciting new flavours and part of our philosophy is to try these, along with our more traditional recipes to produce for you the best range of real beer that we can.

Yeast is the crucial ingredient for the fermentation process. It feeds on the sugars in the brew to create the alcohol and fizz (CO2). We use Nottingham Ale yeast which consistently gives us the alcohol content we want for our beers.

The last ingredient is the finings which are used to help clear the beer of the yeast (a process called ‘dropping bright’), this is something craft brewers have used since the seventeenth century and is a process of adding a small amount of finings into the boil and when the beer is put into the cask. The finings have a natural positive charge which attracts the negatively charged yeast particles, grouping them together so that they fall to the bottom of the container.